We Saw A Bear!!! - 237 miles

But first we had to get going. I had just the best night's sleep. 11pm until the alarm went off at 7am. Excellent as today's riding promises to be more technical.

Jack and Linda were waiting when we emerged and we went up to the nearby Wal-Mart for the oil-change special.

Into the auto section and got oil for two bikes and a pan for total $45.41. We had saved the .97c funnel from last time.

In the car park, first Jack, then I changed our oil and filters and took the used oil back into the mechanics bay where they happily take it for recycling.

All done in about 20 minutes.

On the road and we were soon out of Front Royal and into the Shenandoah National Park. Good to be able to flash the Pass and get in. We were following Skyline Road that runs along the ridge of the northern part of the Blue Ridge mountains. Being National Park however, means heavily regulated and the speed limit was 35mph. Pretty silly as the road is not all that difficult to negotiate and is pretty much all double lines so no overtaking. It becomes a procession.

But we did see a black bear. We've been on the lookout for one all trip and finally it happened. We were tooling along in the procession when we saw a car stopped in the road and camera out. As we passed, Charleen looked to where the camera was pointing and sure enough a large-ish black shape in the trees not 50 feet away.

We quickly found a pull-in and stopped. By the time we turned around the car had gone, but we were able to get a good sighting as the bear ambled about. Photographs were a different matter because of the dark woods and black subject, but one turned out sort of OK. As photographic evidence goes - pretty terrible. So you don't have to believe us. We certainly weren't going to chase it through the woods for a better snap.

After about a hundred miles of a very pretty scenic road, we were out of the National park and then on to the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is not NP but maintained by local counties. Speed limit 45 and with the usual tolerance of 10mph - quite realistic for the type of road.

We did another hundred or so miles of this having an absolute ball. Such a nice change from recent super-slabs and straight roads we have been on since leaving the Rocky Mountains all those weeks ago.

By this time, it was starting to get a little late and the sky was looking a bit dark ahead. We pulled off the parkway at Roanoke and found digs just as it started to come down. Nicely timed.

We didn't do as many miles as we expected due to the slow start and low set limits, so we may be taking a day longer than expected to do the Blue Ridge. So be it.

Only a few pics, but check out the video:

Looking out over the Shannendoah Valley from Skyline Drive

Corners - we got corners!!

But some of the cars were a bit slow in the corners

Our best Bear shot so far - not very good. Charleen blurred the outsides to focus on the subject.

There were plenty of lookouts - they call them overlooks - along the way.

Saw quite a few of these - a club run.

Will this pass for a FarWater? FarRiders will know what it is about.